Does Google Know Where You Are?

9 Steps to Improve Your Rankings!

Whether you are a writer or in another line of business, you want Google to be able to find you. If you have a website, you want it found, ideally on the first page. If you don’t have a website, but want to build an internet business presence, you want to be easily located.

Numerous studies have been done and show that over 85% of searchers do not venture past the first page of listings. There are many great search engines. Google seems to cover the broadest reach, so they are what I focus on pleasing.

These nine steps to improve your ranking are as follows:

1. Open a Google account for G-Mail, even if you don’t plan to use it. You’ll need it to maximize your ability/access to use other Google tools.

2. Complete your Google Profile. It will be to your benefit to have this as complete as possible, make it public, and be sure to include in your Google reader.

3. If you have a website, what is its purpose? Your major goal should be clear in your little blurb at the top of the site. This should contain the keywords of your site. When you have multiple goals, search engines get confused.

a. When you use keywords on your site or in blog posts, be sure to use them in sentences that make sense, titles for articles, and column headers. It is also effective to use the same keywords as part of your Twitter posts, but that is another subject.

b. In a blog post, be sure to include some of your keywords in your first and last paragraphs and a few throughout the rest of the post.

c. You want Google to pick up keywords, but not view them as being stuffed. It will know the difference.

4. If you have a website, list it on Google Analytics. This will show you how much traffic is coming to your website and where it is coming from.

5. Sign up for Google Alerts. This is easy and lets you see when something is being posted about you or your company. You can also have alerts on your competitors. You can also check Trackur.com to see where you show up. I’ve found it to have more alerts.

6. Flash content on your site tends to block search engines. So even though it may look nice, I don’t recommend this approach. In addition, it slows downloading.

7. You don’t want your site to be static. I’d highly recommend you have a blog. Either update it a minimum of once a week (ideally 3 to 4 times) consistently or pay someone to do it for you. This shows you have new content on a regular basis. You can link your blog to Twitter using Twitterfeed. Then, every time you update your blog, Twitter is updated. This provides links back to your blog and site.

8. You site needs effective content that uses your keywords.

9. Incoming links are one of the most effective ways to red flag Google that you are important.

How do you do this:

a. Comment on other blogs. Be sure to put your signature at the bottom with a link to your website. Hint: I have a document file with my signature, the way I want it, with all links, etc. and I keep this document open. When I commenting, I copy and paste my signature.

b. Even though you can comment on any blog, newspaper article, etc., it is important that you comment on several quality sites that are in the same field as your site. That way, the incoming links are relevant.

I’m by no means an expert on Google. All of my social networking, search engine optimization, and keyword understanding, have been developed over the past 2-1/2 years. I spend about 15 minutes a day, learning a new aspect of the vast, daunting internet. Because I picked this topic, it forced me to update my own Google profile.

At one point, I was at the top of the marketing game, with five international awards for successful programs. Now, marketing is less expensive, has more options, but requires a commitment to either learn or pay someone to market you or your company online.

It takes continuous learning to keep up in today’s environment, but you’ll reach many more people in a cost effective way.